The present invention relates to a container of fluent material.
Containers for fluent material generally have an outer load bearing shell, frequently made of corrugated paper board such as double wall board or triple wall board, the additional layers provided by these multi-wall boards providing additional strength. The outer corrugated board container has within it a bag which is made of flexible material impervious to the liquid or other fluent material to be contained within the container. These bags are typically of a suitable plastic, such as polyvinyl chloride. Containers of this type for shipping large quantities and weights of fluent material are typically provided with a filler opening or fitting in the top of the liner bag, and the liner bag is usually provided with a discharge fitting near its bottom, for the discharge of the fluent material from within the liner bag of the container.
Examples of containers of the above type for shipping large weights of fluent material include Croley U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,692, Kupersmit U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,673, and Fremow et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,143.
A number of containers have been provided in which there has been support for the bag at the upper part thereof. Preston et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,015 discloses a container with an outer protective shell and a bag, and a member which engages posts within the container to which a filling spout in the center part of the top of the bag is attached for holding the top of the liner near the top of the container during filling. Prior to the attachment of the filling opening, loops at the upper corners of the liner are passed at the corners of the container to the outside of the container and held by adhesive tape. Other bags, not within outer shells, have been provided with loops at their upper ends, generally used for lifting the bags; see Green U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,235, Sekiguchi U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,853, Fell et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,502, Marino U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,457, and Natrass U.S. Pat. No. RE. 32,308. These suspension loops have been placed at the periphery of the bags.
The provision of holding elements or suspension elements at the edges of the bag do not provide support for the top of the bag in a uniform manner during filling or transport of the filled container.
Containers of the above type have been provided only with relatively small diameter filling fittings to which the liner bag was attached, as by adhesion or welding. Examples include Kuss U.S. Pat. No. 2,946,494, Walker U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,002, Edwards et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,051, and Preston et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,015. Other disclosures have provided no fitting at all at the top of the liner or bag, such as in Croley U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,692. In the former type, the rapidity of filling, particularly with materials of a paste-like constituency such as tomato sauce, required an unsatisfactorily long time. In the type in which no fitting was provided on the liner bag, special arrangements were required to associated and hold a filling hose to the bag.
There have been a number of proposals in the prior art for holding a liner bag of thin plastic material to the top edge of a receptacle such as a garbage can. Heitz U.S. Pat. No. 3,779,419 provides a number of embodiments for this purpose, there generally being provided an annular insert into the top of the garbage can which clamps the mouth of the liner bag to prevent it from falling into the garbage can. These annular inserts were either fitted into the mouth of the garbage container, or into the upper edge of the garbage container, where a molded plastic can was provided with a groove or recess to releasably receive the annular holding element. This construction was provided so that the holding element can be readily removed, to permit the replacement of liner bags in the garbage can.
Another disclosure of apparatus for holding a liner within a container is provided by Shenk et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,145,613, in which the top of a barrel is provided with a bead, and a ring has the mouth of a bag passed between it and the bead: a top is held in position against the bead by an expandable band, the parts being disassembled for replacement of the bag.
The discharge fittings provided in the prior art were typically of hard plastic material, often being tubular with a flange for connection to the liner bag and provided with other flanges for association with the container. Powell U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,807 is exemplary of such constructions. Rutter U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,018 provides a construction of this general nature in which a piercing spout is used, inserted in a rigid fitting and making its own opening in the wall of the bag. Hamilton et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,090,526 discloses a fitting having a flexible spout connected to it and included in the package. Savage U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,864 provides a variation of a rigid spout in which a plug is forced inwardly by a hollow probe inserted into the fitting. These known fittings require either puncturing of the liner bag, which is an often difficult and unreliable operation, or they need a valve, which is subject to leakage particularly under the pressures generated with high capacity containers.
Also known is a construction in which a drain spigot of generally tubular construction has a flexible plastic hose fitted over it, the hose being double-reversely or folded into an "S" shape, and held in the folded position by a clamp using screw threaded members. This construction is not adaptable to being enclosed within the container, and may require a tool such as pliers to effect the release of the clamp.